Well the 72 SS plan fell thorugh so i've been looking around and i found a 77 Firebird with a 400ci pontiac engine and i was wondering about how much HP does one of those produce?

 

If its a base 400, 185HP. The T/A 6.6 litre option engine had 200HP in 1977 and 220 in 1978. I had a 1977 Trans Am back in the day, with the T/A 6.6 litre engine and auto trans.

Ahhhh....the late 1970's.....those were the days.

 

I've always liked the late 70's birds and TA's w/ 400's. Sure they are strangled from the factory, but they are still 400's. Pop on some better flowing/higher compression heads, good intake, bigger cam and some decent gears in the diff and you have a good running bird.

edit: oh yeah, you'd have to do something about the choke hold exaust system.

 

Back in those days, just adding true duals and getting rid of the cat added a lot of power. Heck, just getting rid of the cat alone added a lot of power! Those things were horrible for flow.

 

W/a decent cam, exhaust etc it'll be a major tire burner. I've seen a relatively mild 400 run high 12's w/ a 3.08 gear.

 

Ok well come to find out my uncle (the one whos trading the car with me) says that it has a 455ci. The 400ci was just a guess, so does anybody know how much one of those puts out lol?

 

Thats anyones guess, since the 455 was last offered in the Trans Am and Formula in 1976. It made only 200 smogged to the max horsepower, but something like 340-360 ft/lbs torque. The mid 1970's were the wors era in history for smogged out cars. What a crappy time for factory HP.

Anyhow, no '77 'birds came stock with the 455. Just an FYI.

 

Yeah figured that much lol , ok well thanks for your help guys i really appreciate it

 

I just bought an 80 ta with 400 rebuilt..no idea what was done to it.As far as I know its got dual exhaust and no cat and 600 size edelbrock..I installed 3.42 gears and now it already runs 14.85 at 95mph with a 2.41 60ft and I am at 1900 ft above seal level .I also think it should do a few tenths less easy.There was just an article in car craft or one of the mags on hotting up a smogger 455.
Basically the cam is major restriction..once you do that then exhaust,headers and intake help quite a bit like 100 hp worth..and then they added some edelbrock heads and got 450 easily with massive torque..
E heads are expenive for the pontiacs though. I do like the torque the 400s and 455 have..its fun and makes the cars feel nice and fast.

 

Bad News . Found out that the 455 has a spun bearing, so if we run it too long its gonna throw a rod So my uncle has a 81 camaro with a 350 Crate engine and he said that he would swap the engine and tranny out of his camaro into my f-bird for free.

So i'm set there he just needs about $200 to go towards an Overhaul kit so its all good heheh

 

rebuild the 455

 

A mild 455 will put the spanking on that 350. I worked with a guy that bracket raced a TA w/a relatively mild 455 w/ 3.73 gears that ran low 12's. He still used it as a daily driver too. The low RPM torque on those things are hellacious.

 

yeah they are very fast engines but they are exspensive as hell to work on lol. ANd the total overhaul kit os probaly like $600 and i dont have that right now so for now this will have to do

 

plus that 350 is putting out over 400HP

 

no 350 chevy will be as much fun as the 400 or 455 pontiac. heck even the 350 pont. was faster than the 350 chevy and the 400 chevy. cause both cars had same gears,but pontiac engine are big block so with the high gear's they could really rip.


i got a 91 firebird with t-top's. that i put a 400sbc in it with dual tbi's that car will really rip when done it's got a 700r4 from a gmc c-30 rebuilt with shift kit. and a 7.5 inch 10bolt gm rear end eith 4.11 rear end. so it should move well but i think i may want a stall converter. and i'm debateing weather to use the 318degree cam or the 328 degree cam. cause the 292 wasn;'t as snappy as i thought it would be.